Acute and subacute toxicity of yeast hydrolysate from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The objective of this study was to obtain data on the safety-in-use of yeast hydrolysate in 10–30 kDa molecular weight as a dietary supplement by assessing its acute and subacute oral toxicity in female and male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats. The single oral dose of the hydrolysate at 5000 mg/kg did not produce mortality or significant changes in the general behavior and gross appearance of the internal organs of rats. In subacute toxicity study, the hydrolysate was administered orally at a dose of 1000 mg/kg/day for a period of 14 days. The satellite group was treated with the hydrolysate at the same dose and the same period and kept for another 14 days after treatment. There were no significant differences in organ weights between control and treated group of both sexes. Hematological analysis and blood chemistry revealed no toxicity effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae hydrolysate. Pathologically, neither gross abnormalities nor histopathological changes were observed. These results show that the hydrolysate possesses very low toxicity as indicated in SD rat model.